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Reading about the heat out west, and seeing as it's the slow period as we wait for football, what's the hottest temp in which you ever participated in an athletic contest? (I'm leaving out practices, training camps, unorganized sports, etc. since - as much as those sucked - you could always break for water and being in uniform wasn't generally required...)

Mine was a baseball game in Georgia during my American Legion days. First pitch was 1:30, the high was 108, and, being Georgia, humidity was 100%. To make it worse, the coach informed me before we traveled that I would be starting pitcher. By Jeebus it was hot! For the first, and only, time I had to take my hat and jersey off between innings to put them in the sun to dry out...and I still had to change into the jersey of one of our relievers before the 6th inning as mine was like pitching while wrapped in a hot, wet towel. It did probably save me a run, though, as a guy crushed a hung curve but the ball looked like it was trying to fly in soup.

The hottest game I've been to has to be without a doubt Arizona vs USC this past season where we came back from 3 TDs down and won, the temperature was 111 degrees(i know it's dry heat, but regardless hot is hot) at 11:30 in the AM. We usually have night games due to the heat but no because of TV obviously they made it an "afternoon game".

High school ball on the old pre-Olympics brillo pad turf at Legion Field. I don't remember the temperature, but it was like playing on a frying pan. The heat radiated up through your feet. It hurt to breathe.

Watching a Mike Anderson coached UAB-Memphis game at Bartow Arena

Not athletic related, but I have something in common with BTR and B4L - I've done time in costume suits. I worked a couple of years at Six Flags in Atlanta and spent most of that as a costumed character... H.R. Pufnstuf and a bunch of characters from that show, plus the bear and rabbit that were SFOG's critters for advertising.

So try putting on furry black bear suit, in August, in Atlanta, and then dancing to the band on parade, running around crazy when it's 95 out with 80% humidity. Big flappy feet on very hot asphalt. It could hit well over 100 inside the head, it was like wearing an oven. Our standard schedule would take us out from 15 to 45 minutes, and whatever time we were out, we were on that many minutes break afterward to prevent heat exhaustion.

We lived on ice water and salt pills. We changed clothes after every run out into the park, because we'd be wringing wet. Didn't make much money but I had a helluva good time when I was 16, 17.

(06-29-2013 12:12 PM)Smaug Wrote:  High school ball on the old pre-Olympics brillo pad turf at Legion Field. I don't remember the temperature, but it was like playing on a frying pan. The heat radiated up through your feet. It hurt to breathe.

MLB outfielders used to complain that when they played in St. Louis, back when they had the old-style artificial turf, their cleats would start to melt.

My memory of the hottest game will always be the Bama @ UGA FB game to open the 1961 season. Sanford Stadium had only two concession stands - one at each end as I recall - and they ran out of ice by the end of the first quarter and any kind of drink by halftime. Fans of both teams went to the concession stands, bought whole flats of drinks and then escorted them back to their section because some fan's behavior really got ugly in that heat. There were two water fountains next to the press box, but they were ambient temperature so did little good and the line was VERY long anyways. I don't recall hearing the actual temp, but it had to be high 90s or better before the game ever started and I don't recall ANY breeze in that bowl.

2005 season opener at Legion Field against South Carolina State in the MEAC/SWAC Challenge. It was a 1pm kick and the heat was downright miserable. I think Birmingham was going through a heat wave and had a days with temperatures over 100 degrees. I remember coming out in pregame and it felt like a sauna, and I didn't have on anything but shorts and an under armor. It was so hot that coach decided that we wouldn't stretch or go through pre-game with full pads, SC State also did the same. Our bench was on the East side of the stadium which put us in direct sunlight. By the middle of the 1st quarter about 80% of our fans left our side and went over to the West side of the stadium and sat under the shaded areas. It was so hot that at halftime I had to change to a new under armour and girdle because the ones that I had one felt like I had jumped into a swimming pool. That whole game was just miserable and the 1pm kick made it worst. I wish ESPN or somebody would have pushed that one back to a night game. I think I lost a few pounds after that one.

Last weekend. I ran a race in Leland, MS last weekend called "Hotter than Hades." When I was driving back, I saw a sign with the temp that read 85 degrees Celsius & 185 Fahrenheit.

95 in an outdoor basketball game in the Philippines back in the mid-80's,...As an official, with a heat index of nearly 110 in a softball tournament in Hanceville last Summer...Man, that **** was brutal!!!

I've done some extremely hot bicycle centuries in August.

The Hot Hundred in Tuscaloosa - 100 miles in early August. Had to quit the first time I tried it with terrible muscle cramps. I did complete it a few years later, but the amenities weren't good enough to want to do it again.

...and last year, probably the hottest ever, was the Bikes, Blues & Barbecue century in Greenwood Mississippi. It's in the Mississippi Delta country, pan flat, with no shade to speak of. Just soybeans and cotton fields for miles. When I finished last year, the thermometer on my bike computer read 102 at the finish. Thank gawd for the icy towels and cold beer at the finish. The organization and amenities were first rate... so I'm masochistic enough that I'm considering going again this year.